Long before the birth of the modern gay movement in 1969, a literary revolution was occurring between the covers of the cheaply produced pulp paperbacks of the post-World War II era. In Pulp Friction, cultural critic Michael Bronski collects a sampling of these now-little-known gay erotic writings-some by writers long forgotten, some never known, and a few now famous. Through them, he explores the ways in which these expressions of the erotic imag-ination ultimately led to the idea of a gay identity and the creation of gay culture. An entertaining, enlightening, and groundbreaking work.

Long before the rise of the modern gay movement, an unnoticed literary revolution was occurring, mostly between the covers of the cheaply produced pulp paperbacks of the post-World War II era. Cultural critic Michael Bronski collects a sampling of these now little-known gay erotic writings—some by writers long forgotten, some never known and a few now famous. Through them, Bronski challenges many long-held views of American postwar fiction and the rise of gay literature, as well as of the culture at large.